BOSTON – Leave it to the hometown hero to save the preliminary card of one of the UFC’s most important events.

In the featured prelim bout of the UFC’s highly anticipated Boston debut, Massachusetts native Joe Lauzon was shot out of a cannon and decimated an overwhelmed Gabe Ruediger en route to a first-round submission victory.

The lightweight fight, which headlined the night’s Spike TV “UFC Prelims” broadcast, re-energized a TD Garden crowd and followed a string of fairly lackluster fights.

Lauzon originally was matched up with Terry Etim before Ruediger, a castmate on “The Ultimate Fighter 5,” rejoined the UFC and took the fight as an injury replacement. And the fighters engaged in plenty of public trash-talk leading up to the fight.

Ruediger, of course, has been an easy target. He flamed out of “TUF 5,” where he failed to make weight for his fight after a chocolate-cake storyline and very public colonic. But a six-fight win streak and Tachi Palace Fights championships got him a second chance in the octagon.

Unfortunately, he ran into a buzzsaw in Lauzon, who dominated him from the opening bell. After rocking him standing, Lauzon took the fight to the mat and continued the abuse. With his opponent kneeling, Lauzon unloaded vicious punches from behind and ultimately settled for a fight-ending armbar just two minutes into the fight.

Ruediger appeared overwhelmed from the get-go. Lauzon said it was all part of the plan.

“I was going to take his heart, and then I was going to take his arm,” Lauzon said. “And that’s what I did.

“I’m so glad I got to fight here in Boston. It’s a dream come true.

With his third win in four fights, Lauzon improves to 19-5 overall and 6-2 in the UFC. Ruediger falls to 17-6 (0-2 UFC).

In a bout that will do nothing to help the battered reputation of British wrestling, U.K. fighter and “TUF 9″ runner-up Andre Winner repeatedly struggled defending takedowns and rarely kept his fight with fellow welterweight Nik Lentz upright. It resulted in a unanimous-decision win for Lentz but an overall lackluster fight that proved a rough Spike TV opener.

The fight, which kicked off the night’s “UFC Prelims” broadcast, was spent almost entirely in the clinch or on the mat. Unable to create distance for his superior striking, Winner was in defense mode as Lentz continued to grind away.

Lentz mixed in a few strikes, and Winner had some success while in the clinch. But with his inability to defend against a much shorter opponent’s smothering game, Winner appeared a fish out of water and clearly frustrated as the fight wore on.

With a lack of extensive damage and a handful of submission attempts, Lentz won ugly – but he also won decisively; the judges awarded him the victory via scores of 30-27, 29-28 and 30-27.

“I felt good about my performance,” he said. “I got the win, but I felt like I could’ve done a lot of things better. But when you’re in there with a person of his caliber, it’s tough to get the finish. He’s definitely the toughest guy I’ve ever fought.”

Meanwhile, Dan Miller saved one his best performances for when it mattered most and snapped a three-fight losing streak with a submission victory over fellow middleweight John Salter.

Miller opened his UFC career with a 3-0 record, but he then faced the elite of his division: 185-pound contenders Chael Sonnen, Demian Maia and Michael Bisping. And after losing each of the fights via decision, he was lucky to get another shot in the octagon.

But as a replacement fighter for injured Phil Baroni, Miller kept things event through a competitive first round. And though the newly minted Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt was wobbled with a left hook early in the second round, Miller quickly regained hit wits, stuffed Salter’s takedown attempt, secured his opponent’s neck, and soon forced the tap-out from an anaconda choke.

The submission win came at the 1:53 mark of the round.

“I’m so happy I got this win,” Miller said. “I needed it. I felt like if I got another loss, I would be cut.”

It was an emotional victory for Miller (12-4 MMA, 4-3 UFC), who kept quiet about family issues that developed during his losing streak. Salter (5-2 MMA, 1-2 UFC), meanwhile, finds himself in a must-win situation in his next fight.

In welterweight action, Northeast product Greg Soto rebounded from his first career loss and likely saved his UFC career with a come-from-behind unanimous-decision victory over Nick Osipczak.

Osipczak, a cast member from “TUF 9,” took an early lead after dominating the ground fighting and using elbow strikes to open facial cuts. A ringside physician took extra time to examine the wounds between rounds before finally clearing Soto to continue. And knowing the end could be near, Soto went to work with takedowns, ground and pound, choke attempts, and crushing knees to the ribs.

The rally didn’t result in a finish, but it did earn him the decision victory via scores of 29-28 on all three judges’ cards.

“Nick’s standup is sharp,” said Soto, an instructor at Kurt Pellegrino’s New Jersey gym. “He stung me a few times, but there’s no quit in me – no quit in Pellegrino MMA, my wrestling, my jiu-jitsu. It was just too much for him. I came in great shape for this fight, and I felt like my control on top was strong.”

In the night’s opening bout, Mike Pierce used the first two rounds to score multiple takedowns with a smothering top game before forcing fellow lightweight Amilcar Alves to tap out from a cross-body armbar in the third.

Pierce, a former Portland State University wrestler, scored the takedowns with ease but initially offered little in the way of strikes or submission attempts. However, in the final frame of an otherwise ho-hum bout, Pierce attacked his opponent’s left arm with a kimura attempt before repositioning and securing the ambar at the 3:11 mark.

“I went for the submission earlier but couldn’t get it,” Pierce said. “I knew my wrestling and jiu-jitsu [were] better than his Muay Thai, so I wanted to take him down. His arm was slippery, but as soon as I got the lock in place, I knew I had him.”